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Owning My Journey: The Power of Being Different

Updated: Sep 14



“I am Xu Yongye, a student in Grade 10 at Bi Dang Hua Yao School, Kunshan, and I am a part of the LGBTQ+ community. To be honest, perhaps because I’m situated in a relatively open-minded environment, I don’t necessarily think of my identity as greatly different from that of others. I believe everyone is unique in their own way, so we need to embrace our differences and celebrate our similarities.”


“In a society that emphasizes uniformity and conformity, I am intentionally aware of what makes me unique. While everyone’s different, I do not exaggerate the fact that my sexuality may be different from others. This is because I know I also share commonalities with others. At the end of the day, I believe open-mindedness and respectful tolerance is the most important. In other words, viewing commendable qualities and areas that need improvement separately.”


“I believe a lack of understanding, or perplexity, perhaps of the fact that I am not attracted to the opposite sex, is understandable. In fact, I believe a general lack of access to and quality of sexual education remains prominent. However, I also can’t say for a fact whether sex education will be made available locally or even globally in the future. It is understandable to me because, after all, knowledge in this area is unknown and obscure to many. Perhaps throughout their upbringing, regardless of familial nurture or external media influence, they have been trained to accept the norm that boys like girls and girls like boys, leading to such misunderstandings. Notwithstanding this, mockery and taunting behaviors, on the other hand, are shabby. Mockery, in nature, involves positioning oneself on a higher moral ground and looking down upon the rest. In fact, I feel quite pitiful towards individuals like this because everything exists in this world for a reason, and if you fail to accept that, you lack the ability to do so. I believe the world we live in requires us to constantly adapt, accept, and absorb constructive elements from criticism. You can’t just be upset when you feel attacked because adversities in life are what make self-growth and improvement possible.”


“I like to think of those vituperating advertisement videos you have to watch before you can restart a new game, passing by instantly. They’re just like exasperated non-character players. Of all the voices that have doubted and shamed me in the past, theirs are of no greater wonder or importance to me at all now.”


“You are the main character in your life, the one with the steering will. No one can tell you what to do and where to go. Suppose a car is driving down the highway; if you let someone on the left steer it first and then someone on the right steer it next, it is bound to crash. This is why I prefer believing that one’s life is for no one to make decisions for but themselves only."


Interviewer: 苏沙叶

Editor: Alex

Translator: Alex

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